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User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5E12 - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN - Impressions/Recap
PREVIOUSLY ON RWBY OLPause4.png|''Wait. You're not really Ozpin right now, right?'' OLPause5.png|''If I deliver you to Salami, she will be pleased with me, and I'll receive a lifetime's worth of sausages! I will never be hungry again!'' OLPause6.png|''Get ready, Smolboi!'' OLPause8.png|''(Alright, Compost King. We cannot let Salami destroy Haven. We must win, in the name of Vegetables!)'' OLPause7.png|''Uh, Ozpin, compost isn't a vegetable. It's not even edible'' OLPause9.png|''(Semantics! Just go fight already)'' ---- GlyphHopping14.png|Being FailKnight9.png|Weiss WVFight7.png|Is V5 11 00053.png|Suffering V5 11 00059.png|Cookies and Milk SilverBlast5.png|Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk V5 11 00060.png|Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Milk WeissImpaled4.png WeissImpaled5.png WeissImpaled6.png|''No, stop'' WeissImpaled9.png WeissImpaled8.png|''NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!'' WeissImpaled10.png V5 11 00071.png V5 11 00074.png|''...My waifu......'' ---- In other news, this thing. For newcomers to this thing, this is basically me, making an informal recap of what happened in the episode, while giving my thoughts about what happens. It also includes fancy color speak, the Language of Truth, of which 2 colors are particularly notable: Red means truth, fact in the eyes of the user, le me. Blue means a guess, an hypothesis, a theory. If you've read these blogs of mine before, you would realize the captions in each pic look different from usual. And they do. A constant problem in a gallery is that when Pic 1 is "tall" and Pic 2 isn't - or better said, when one of the pics in a row is not square or rectangular (tall) - then the captions for ALL the pics in that row end up very separated from their respective pics, which can make it annoying to read at times. This time I'm testing out using the captions within the pics instead of below them, to see if that problem is solved while there's still a good chunk of the actual pic left visible. Feel free to say what you feel about it, whether it's better or worse. Now, this was written as I saw the episode, for those who don't know....and it would've been finished sooner, but....spoiler alert, I couldn't handle the episode around the 6:30 mark when I watched it on Sunday, I needed to stop, my brain, my patience, couldn't tolerate it for much longer. That said, let's move on to the episode. We start our day with: Triumph (or Triumph!) Right before I watched this ep, I realized....after being beaten up a bit by Oscar, Leo said: This can’t be… I knew you would be back, but… you made it here! '''You found Qrow!' How?'' "Found Qrow"..........we know that Ozpin had sent him to scout Salem's base during/before Vol.1 and 2. Yet Leo says "Found", as if Qrow had been missing instead. At first, I thought that Leo didn't know that Qrow was sent on a mission. But that makes no real sense. Being part of Ozpin's Ozluminati he should know what kind of missions Qrow does for Ozpin. At the same time every line he said back in Episode 1 gave the impression that he never assumed Qrow was missing, instead it more or less states that he knew they were coming. So then I thought, that maybe that was just part of how surprised/impressed he was with Ozpin. Which makes sense; Ozpin didn't just come back, he made it to Mistral and even met up with Qrow, in less than a year at that. Though then the line that comes inmediately after - Ozpin's "what happened to you?" line - feels a bit....strange. Like, a bit lacking in coherence when alongside the previous line on the script. Maybe it was just me being confused. Or maybe it was just weird word choice by Miles. Considering he thought it was a good idea to say "Terminated" to state "everyone's dead", it seems believable. 1) Weiss? Weiss! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIISSSSS!!!!!!!!!! V5C12 00002.png|''Nonononononononono'' WeissIsDed2.png|''Thiscan'tbehappeningthiscan'tbehappeningthiscan'tbehappeningthiscan'tbehappening'' V5C12 00004.png|''(I sense a perturbance in the Force...did something happen?)'' WeissIsDed4.png|''Well, Jaune is running...'' V5C12 00005.png|''...And Weiss is lying on the floor. She's not moving!'' WeissIsDed6.png|''(Ah, great. Dead barely 1 episode into the fight. You had one job...)'' ScaredOscar1.png|''(What about our ace in the hole, Ruby?)'' V5C12 00006.png|''She's lying on the floor. She's not moving either!'' ScaredOscar3.png|''(Ah, don't worry about her. She has main protagonist privilegies, she cannot die)'' ScaredOscar4.png|''Oh, thank goodness, I feared she....wait'' ScaredOscar5.png|''We don't have main protagonist privilegies! WE COULD DIE HERE!'' AngreyOscar1.png|''(Alright, Oscar, calm down, I know you're afraid but we need to stay-)'' AngreyOscar2.png|''AAAAAAAAAAAA-'' AngreyOscar3.png|''-AAAAAAAAAAAAA-'' V5C12 00007.png|''-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!'' RollingLion1.png|''Ow, my face!'' RollingLion2.png|''Ouchie ouch!'' V5C12 00008.png|''My shoulder!'' RollingLion4.png|''Ay mama!'' RollingLion5.png|''You have got to be kidding me'' RollingLion6.png|''Oof!'' V5C12 00009.png|''...Seriously? What are you, made of paper?'' .....I'm getting Tyrian vs Qrow flashbacks, and not good ones. Oscar screams to the heavens, lifts his arm, and does the slowest, most predictable swing he has done ever. Leo is right beside him, hearing the scream and seeing Oscar prepare the swing. And then allows himself to get hit in the face. It's actually worst than Qrow vs Tyrian, in fact. >Back then, Tyrian could be argued to have been entertained by Ruby's shots. Qrow also made a slow-ass punch, but he did it silently. >This time, Oscar screams like hell before and while preparing the swing. There was nothing distracting Leo once Oscar started his screaming. And to make it worse, Leo's weapon is a fucking shield, '''HE TRAINED FOR YEARS WITH A FIGHTING STYLE BASED AROUND BLOCKING'.'' And yet he fails to block such an obvious attack. After spending the last episode blocking a dozen swings which were faster and less predictable than this one. And all after giving the impression that he was going to go all out. But noooo, Miles and Kerry reduce him to comic relief, because having Leo give a serious fight is a bad idea, right? ---- Regressive bullshit aside, the only thing this mood-whiplashy moment was useful for was showing us how damn Manly Hazel is, barely moving even after an old man crashed into him. On the other hand, we already knew how damn Manly Hazel is, at the very least all the way back in the opening, grabbing Nora mid swing and throwing her like a doll before blocking blades with sheer force of Manly Body Hair. So this joke achieves nothing. Last ep was already a disappointing start for the Battle of Beacon. Least they could do is not make the rest of it disappointing. On a sidenote, I never knew Ozpin's cane had an hexagonal base. I always thought it had a circular one or a square one. WakeUpRuby1.png|''(We need to wake her up, she can't save us if she's unconscious)'' WakeUpRuby2.png|''RUBY! WAKE UP! WE NEED YOU! I DON'T WANNA DIE! WAKE UP!'' TheBoyIsOzpin1.png|''Owie...my back...'' TheBoyIsOzpin2.png|''Wooah!'' V5C12 00010.png|''Did you seriously let that boy smack you around like a little bitch?'' TheBoyIsOzpin4.png|''He's no simple boy. He's OZPIN!'' TheBoyIsOzpin5.png|''Oz......pin.....?'' V5C12 00011.png TheBoyIsOzpin7.png|''Ozpin.........'' V5C12 00012.png|''Ozpiiiiiiiin.....!'' WakeUpRuby3.png|''Urhgeblahaboudfhblah....'' WakeUpRuby4.png|''OH, THANK THE GODS! You're awake! We're safe!'' WakeUpRuby5.png|''OZPIN!!!'' WakeUpRuby6.png|''(You just had to jinx it, didn't you Oscar?)'' AngreyHazel1.png|''THOUGHT YOU COULD HIDE FROM ME?!'' V5C12 00013.png|''DID YOU?!?!'' AngreyHazel3.png|''Wait...is he gonna remove his shirt right here?'' V5C12 00014.png|''YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!'' AngreyHazel5.png|''Oh, he kept his shirt on. Damn teaser'' AngreyHazel6.png|''YOU WILL DIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!'' AngreyHazel7.png|''OVER'' AngreyHazel8.png|''AND OVER AGAIN!!!!'' Pfffft 'HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'' Who the hell directed this scene?! That close-over to his face as he screams ''OVER AND OVER '''AND OVER AND OVER'' with the most ham there has been in this entire Volume, if not the entire show.... ...This is Gold-tier hilarious! It's like I'm watching some Youtube shitpost, or some Youtube Poop, or something like that. I guess Leo's Mood-Whiplashy Comic-Reliefness is infectious. Maybe that's his Semblance? Narm aside, there is one thing I like and one thing I don't really like about this. >Hazel with Dust. Is this the first time we'll see someone use Raw Dust outright? Will it be a Dust infusion or something? >The Dust is Golden.....Golden Dust....the heck does it do? What element is that? DopingHazel1.png|''Ugh!'' V5C12 00015.png|''Aaaaaaaa-'' DopingHazel3.png|''-aaaaAAAAAAA-'' V5C12 00016.png|''-AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!'' ....So....that's a Dust Infusion? That's..............I'm rather disappointed, though not for the usual reasons. I mean, I thought it was something like eating Dust, or sticking fragments into your skin, or maybe something done on an operation table involving surgery and all. At the same time I thought the people involved didn't look too bad, but simply could cast Dust Spells out of nowhere. Maybe some side-effects like twitchy arms or something. ........Now, it DOES involve sticking Dust into your skin.......but I didn't expect that to turn you into a monster with thunderous, echoing voice (which is the most overkill part of all this, when it comes to Hazel). Just look at his arms. Now, I don't hate the result. I think it's pretty cool. But it does defy all my expectations, and I'll have to re-write my character ideas involving Dust Infusion. Of course, maybe he looks that monstrous because of how much he doped. He injected like 8 Dust Crystals in himself at once. Maybe if one does it with just 1 or 2 Crystals they won't look as ugly, if only because there'd be less crystals there. ---- That said, I do have 3 things to say now: 1) It hurts Hazel's manly image, seeing that he dopes. Not like Ghira who just gets shirtless, Hazel outright dopes. I guess I was right, Hazel really is Poor Man's Alexander. 2) Why is the Lightning Dust Golden instead of Yellow? Why are you changing Dust colors at this point, RT. '''WHY?' Sigh...at least it's not as bad as with Wind; Gold is not so far from Yellow. 3) Hazel just signed up his "Defeat" warrant. Before, he denied Nora's attacks and then threw her around like a doll. But Nora's Semblance makes her stronger if hit by Lightning, and now Hazel is Beyond Lightning, he's 'THUNDER. Meaning that Nora should either keep up with him or royally beat him up. It actually feels very, very conspicuous that the Dust Hazel used, just happened to be Lightning. Not Fire or Earth or Gravity (Holy shit he would've looked so cool with those). Lightning, which just happens to buff Nora. SavedByQrow1.png|''Oz...I'm scared....do we fight?'' SavedByQrow2.png|''(Are you stupid?! RUUUUUUNNN!!!)'' V5C12 00017.png|YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!' V5C12 00018.png|''Look out kid! SavedByQrow5.png|''Phew...you saved me!'' SavedByQrow6.png|''Alright kiddo, this looks pretty tough'' V5C12 00019.png|''I'll have to go all out!'' OpenTheVault1.png|''Ozpin....is here? Ozpin...is that little boy?!'' V5C12 00020.png|''What, you didn't know?'' OpenTheVault3.png|''I'm not sure if this is bad...but we got the upper hand, let's not waste it'' V5C12 00021.png|''LEO! Get your useless ass up the floor and open the Vault!'' OpenTheVault5.png|''O-on it! Please don't roast me!'' V5C12 00022.png V5C12 00023.png V5C12 00024.png ThingsLookBad1.png|''Alright....things look bad'' ThingsLookBad2.png|''Weiss is still lying on the floor uselessly...'' ThingsLookBad3.png|''…They're about to enter the Maiden Vault...'' ThingsLookBad4.png|''…And Ruby is still lying on the floor uselessly'' This is one of THE (though''' not''' The) most horrendous, egregious, and utterly unforgivable errors there have ever been in this entire show's history. We see things from Yang's PoV as she, standing by the entrance, sees from the left to the right. We get to see the entire room, aside from anything past the stairs. And here are my questions: 1) WHERE THE FUCK ARE MERCURY, EMERALD, QROW, HAZEL, OSCAR?! They just up and vanished. Which is absolutely bullshit because, not only were the former 2 fighting, the latter 3 were all standing at the center of the room. And yet they are nowhere to be seen. Neither the man with the giant scythe, nor the giant of a man with lightning spikes on his arms. There is literally no excuse for this level of bullshit. QROW, HAZEL AND OSCAR WERE LITERALLY STANDING IN FRONT OF CINDER, IN FRONT OF THE STATUE, IN THE CENTER OF THE FUCKING ROOM!!!! The least they could've done is showing them, say, jumping away before Cinder tells Leo to open the Vault. But nooooo. Or hell, just grab their models - which they used literally less than 10 seconds ago - and leave them there, posing, even without animation. Better to have them like unmoving statues than simply not there. This is horrendous. It's like they rushed these things out. Of course, in hindsight, that's exactly what they do. They just have to make a RWBY Volume year after year, as if RWBY was fucking Call of Duty. Yet they don't have the same level of budget to do that. CoD can do it because it's mostly recycling, RWBY doesn't. I haven't seen the YT version, but I seriously hope they fixed that, just like they did with Blake here. Now, more related to the writing: 2) WHERE'S THE ACTION?! Emerald had just bonked Ruby in the head. Emerald is nowhere to be seen instead of, say, standing guard to make sure no one actually follows Cinder and co. Or trying to fight Jaune and Ren while they're distracted with Weiss. Mercury, meanwhile, literally started his fight with Yang with an uncharacteristic frown....and yet we haven't seen shit of their fight (same with Hazel vs Renora). But more egregiously is how Mercury stops, like 3 times, when Yang turns around to look at Weiss. And after that, he never attacks Yang. At all. Since when was he this chivalrious? In fact, it's like Merc just up and vanished, because there's no one attacking Yang or telling her to keep fighting or anything, and Yang doesn't even act as if Merc was there, standing close to her, fighting with her. Maybe even about to make a flying kick like the one "he did" against Yang before she broke his leg (which, judging by his frown, he's butthurt about). And of course, Hazel and Qrow are fighting in another dimension, since they both up and vanished. Though the case with Merc is worse, since with Hazel and Qrow, both sides vanished, but here Yang is still present, so one keeps being left to wonder what the hell is Mercury doing in all this time? ---- Now, looking at the RWBY is Broken videos, and sometimes even without doing so, Shot Continuity has been pretty bad since they upgraded to Maya, and sometimes even before that. Their MO since at least Vol.3 is to grab like 3 dozen animators, have them each make a shot that lasts like 3 seconds, then someone puts them all together. Pretty sure Shane complained about this practice in his letter, and looking at current RWBY I understand why this is an awful way of doing things. Everyone does something. On paper that sounds cool since it means more stuff gets done in less time. But there is no one to watch over the whole thing and make sure that there's continuity between A and B. Result: Some shots are super interchangeable, and many shots lack consistency, with some having X character in A place and the next shot 2 seconds later having them in a different place with nothing to even indicate that they moved. Then there's the problems with the fights last ep, where there was nothing to give us this feeling that everyone was fighting at the same time. Despite Vernal firing Lasers around, you don't see any during Ruby and Emerald's fight, or Oscar's fight with Leo. This is a practice they need to switch, ASAP. And I got 4 ideas for how to remedy it: 1) Instead of having each animator do a shot, have 1-2 animators do a single scene, or a good chunk of a scene. Maintaining consistency between shots made by dozens of different people is difficult, but 1-2 animators can keep consistency by themselves since they know what they've made as they keep making the rest. It's not even more workload. It's the same amount, just with better distribution. 2) Have a small group actually check the shots put together to see if they're consistent between each other. 3) Have someone watching over the production to make sure there aren't errors like these. 4) The best IMO: Stop releasing RWBY every goddamn year as if it was CoD. Using Vol.6 as an example, instead of releasing it this year, release it in 2019, even if just early 2019. More time before release means they got more time to check and fix errors, more time for MK to think stuff to write, more time to finish the Volume so they don't have to resort to lazy "easy way outs". Like using 2D cardboard images in V5E1 to show Mistral, instead of, say, having a properly-designed city with actual 3D people walking around and sitting and chatting. You know, like in VOLUME 2, 3 YEARS AGO, WITH A FAR SMALLER BUDGET AND NUMBER OF ANIMATORS AND INFERIOR ANIMATION PROGRAM. And maybe also let Jeff have time to write and finish his songs. Because seriously, tell me when, in this entire Volume, did we get to listen to a whole-new RWBY song? Answer: Never, only in the Shorts. For comparison, in Vol.4 we got Bad Luck Charm in Episode 7, half-way through the Volume. Here? We're going into the Pre-finale already and the only time there has been an awesome song in a fight, was Weiss vs Lancers, and the song was This Life is Mine, from the previous Volume. ---- They seriously need to change that practice, that Modus Operandi. It's the main reason the RWBY is Broken videos exist, it's the main reason RWBY still gets mocked and treated like shit after all those years. V5C12 00025.png|''Don't just stand there, you idiot! Stop them!'' ThingsLookBad6.png|''Well...I guess today's your lucky day, Fist Hand...'' ThingsLookBad7.png|''Don't even think about it!'' V5C12 00026.png|''Ah!'' V5C12 00027.png|''You wanna get to them, you have to go through us first'' Oh, nevermind. These 2 came back to fight after all! There's still hope. Merc took his sweet time to hit Yang again though, that in itself isn't good battle writing. But still, he's here, there's still hope. ThingsLookBad10.png ThingsLookBad11.png V5C12 00028.png|Does this remind you of anything? V5C12 00029.png|''No, no, no. Come on, wake up!'' V5C12 00030.png|''Ren, she's still bleeding, talk to me!'' V5C12 00031.png|''I mean....you're not even covering the injury, of course she's still bleeding'' SheStillBleeding4.png|''You mean...I won't be able to save her because of my uselessness?'' SheStillBleeding5.png|''No...nonono, not again! This cannot happen!'' SheStillBleeding6.png|''Weiss, come on...wake up, please!'' V5C12 00032.png|''Make sure they keep Ruby alive, okay? If she dies, I'll kill you'' CRVToTheVault2.png|''(Meanwhile, my daughter's on the floor after a single kick...)'' CRVToTheVault3.png|''(Pathetic...simply pathetic...)'' 2) Compost King vs '''ZEUS' (or Thor, or Meganada, or whtv) V5C12 00033.png|THUNDEEEEEEERRRR...'' V5C12 00034.png|''SHOCKWAVE!!!'' HazelvsOscar3.png|''(Oscar, give me the wheel!)'' HazelvsOscar4.png|''No!'' HazelvsOscar5.png HazelvsOscar6.png|''(Oscar, I'm serious, our lives are at stake here!)'' HazelvsOscar7.png|''I said NO, shut-'' V5C12 00035.png|''Umph!'' HazelvsOscar9.png HazelvsOscar10.png|''Ow, my back!'' Wait a fucking minute. Hazel uppercuts Oscar, and sends him flying back. In other words, flying towards the entrance, towards the door. Yet in the next shot, Oscar is flying from the left side to the right side of the room. ..................DO YOU IDIOTS EVEN VERIFY THIS SHIT, ROOSTER TEETH?! There's Shot Discontinuity, and then there's this shit. Hell, the solution was extremely simple: Instead of having Hazel uppercut Oscar, have him hit him with his right hand, sending him flying to the side. BOOM, now the shots have continuity. And people wonder why RWBY gets no respect. ---- Aside from that.... At first I wondered where the hell Qrow was while all this happened. We first have Qrow facing Hazel, Scythe in hand, guarding Oscar. Then we get this where Oscar is fighting all alone, Qrow nowhere to be seen. Then it turns out that we get a glimpse of it as Oscar is flying away, crouched as if he was beaten up, weapon in Sword mode for whatever reason. This isn't just lazy writing, it's terrible writing. There's no coherence here, we jump from Qrow facing Hazel to Hazel beating up Oscar because Qrow was beaten up already, off-screen, without anything to indicate that such a thing happened. This is something they could've shown back when Yang looked in Cinder's direction. Have Hazel beat up Qrow and send him flying away, so we know how Qrow ended up like that instead of just showing up out of nowhere like it did. HazelvsOscar11.png|''(See? You're gonna get us killed! Give me the controls!)'' HOPause1.png|''You told me that if I didn't improve on my own, you'd have to do all the hard work, and that's not fair'' HOPause2.png|''(But this time, if you don't let me do all the hard work, WE WILL DIE)'' HOPause3.png|''(It's not even your fight, it's mine. Let me go at him already)'' HOPause4.png|''Wait, what do you mean? And why is he so crazy about killing us?'' HOPause5.png|''THAT OLD MAN TOLD YOU NOTHING ABOUT ME, RIGHT?'' HOPause6.png|''I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT YOU WHEN WE FIRST MET'' HOPause7.png|''BUT TO THINK YOU HAD SUCH EVIL INSIDE YOU...I FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT'' HOPause8.png|''YOUR BLOOD WILL BE ON MY HANDS...'' HOPause9.png|''YOU WILL BE ALL HE IS'' Ugh.......they seriously need to knock it down a lot with the voice effects. Hazel's voice sounds so distorted I literally can't understand 3/4 of every sentence he makes. Watching in slow-mo doesn't help either, instead it makes his sentences even harder to understand. If my script sounds completely different from the actual script with no real similarities, not my fault. It's Kerry's fault for thinking so much Auto-Tune was cool. V5C12 00037.png|''Don't worry kiddo, I'll save you!'' HOPause11.png HOPause12.png|''Don't worry, this was all part of the plan!'' HOPause13.png|''Wait!'' HOPause14.png V5C12 00038.png HOPause16.png|''Why do you hate Ozpin so much?'' V5C12 00039.png|''TELL HIM, OZPIN!'' HOPause18.png|''TELL HIM HOW YOU KILLED HEEEEEERRRRR!!!!'' HazelSister1.png|''Wait, her?'' HazelSister2.png|''(Gretchen Raynart was Hazel's sister. She went to Beacon to become a Huntress even though Hazel didn't want her to)'' HazelSister3.png|''(But she was such a noob, she died on a training mission, and now he blames me for it)'' HazelSister4.png|''So, he's helping Salem try to destroy the world....because his sister died on a mission and you're an asshole?'' HazelSister5.png|''(Yes. Now let me fight already)'' HazelSister6.png|''NOW YOU KNOW...'' V5C12 00040.png|''AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!'' This.........seriously hurts my perception of Hazel. Tyrian is helping Salem destroy the world because he's a fanatic. Cinder, because she wants power and stuff. Watts, who knows why. Raven because she doesn't want her home to get rektd into oblivion. Merc and Em are there just for Cinder. .......................Meanwhile, Hazel is helping her try to destroy the world......because his sister died on a mission and he blames Ozpin. Because when your sister decides to train to take on a job with known risks, and she dies while at it, it's obviously the Headmaster's fault, and that perfectly justifies siding with Satan to bring the end of the world or at least modern civilization. ...............................On one hand Hazel has a sympathetic motivation. ...............................On the other hand, his motivation is so retarded, calling it "stupid" is an understatement. I understand, hating Ozpin. Less understand, wanting to kill him over and over again. But helping Salem destroy mankind? It's just freaking DUMB. That's like if you had a brother, who becomes a criminal and is arrested. Would that justify you becoming a terrorist against the state and helping murder dozens-to-thousands of people? Hell no. Tyrian is just crazy, and Cinder is just evil. Hazel is neither, yet his motivation is the most retarded when you consider what he's doing. Couldn't they have thought something else? Having a personal vendetta against Ozpin is not a good justification for why Hazel is helping Salem kill myriads of people and cripple, if not downright destroy Kingdoms. HazelSister8.png|''YOU CAN FORGIVE ME FOR WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DO'' HazelSister9.png|''Actually...no. I can't forgive you...'' HazelSister10.png|''...Because the logic is freaking stupid!'' HazelSister11.png|''Did she even know the risks of being a Huntress?!'' HazelSister12.png|''SHE WAS A CHILD, SHE WASN'T READY!!!'' HazelSister13.png|''She made a choice! The choice to put others before even her own life!'' ..............Wait. A child? What?.....But how? I mean, generally one is around 17 when they start their Beacon training. Even the Prodigy Pyrrha, and even people who didn't go to a Combat School but instead learned elsewhere like Blake, they were all 17. The only one who was "a child" back then was Ruby, at 15, and even then Ozpin let her skip years at Signal and go straight to Beacon after she showed great skill (+ likely Silver Eyes). ........So there are 2 possibilities here. Either Gretchen was 17 and Hazel is being ridiculous, or she was a Prodigy of sorts and managed to skip years and go to Beacon early. Because I doubt Ozpin would've just let any random 14-so year old take the Initiation. And of course, she surely must've gone to a Combat School. If not just learned how to fight before going to Beacon. So she must've been at least somewhat ready. Now, if Gretchen turns out to fit all these criteria: >Around Ruby's age. >Not a prodigy. >Didn't go to a Combat School or show much fighting skill. And Ozpin let her in anyway, then I can sympathize more with Hazel's vendetta. Even then, however, she died on a training mission, not the Initiation. So she must've passed the latter, showing that she did at least have potential, like Jaune did. After all, if she can survive being catapulted off a cliff to a forest full of Grimm, and make it all the way up the cliff, that means she did have something in her. Actually, why blame Ozpin? Why not blame her team? Her partner? Ozpin was just the Headmaster, her Team must've been with her on the mission, no? They're more directly "responsible" for her death. Dammit, this ep is making me stop loving Hazel. WHY? HazelSister14.png|''...And so do I'' OzHPreFight1.png|''THEN YOU CHOSE DEATH!'' OzHPreFight2.png|''(Okay, that's it, I didn't reincarnate just to die right again)'' V5C12 00041.png|''Wait, wha-'' OzHPreFight4.png|''(Asshole!)'' V5C12 00042.png V5C12 00043.png|''Alright then, Mr. Raynart...'' OzHPreFight7.png|''OZ.....PIN....?'' OzHPreFight8.png|''OOOOOOOZZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIINNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!'' So much distorted screaming. I liked Hazel's original voice so much more. It was already manly and threatening enough, why mess it up? If it's not broken, don't fix it. JauneTheHealer1.png|''Please! Wake up!'' JauneTheHealer2.png|''She's hardly breathing. I think she's gonna die'' V5C12 00044.png JauneTheHealer4.png|''No, noooo! We were gonna get married, have a million beautiful children!'' V5C12 00045.png|''Please, Weiss, wake up! Don't leave me'' V5C12 00046.png JauneTheHealer6.png JauneTheHealer7.png|''GASP'' JauneTheHealer8.png|''Wait, what's going on?'' JauneTheHealer9.png|''I don't know Jaune, but it's working, so keep touching her'' JauneTheHealer10.png|''Touch her as much as you can'' I still can't believe so many people thought they would kill off Weiss. She has main protagonist privilegies. If anything, people should've been more worried about Jaune, going off to fight a Maiden by himself. Or Oscar, whose Aura dropped after Leo blasted him with a Meteor, because Oscar wanted to show off instead of rolling to the side. Meawhile, on the elevator... V5C12 00047.png|''How long is this thing...it's like we've been here for hours'' CRVElevator2.png|''It was the same at Beacon. Ozpin must've been compensating for something'' V5C12 00048.png CRVElevator4.png|''Nervous, girl? The first Maidens to open a Vault in I-don't-know-how-many years'' V5C12 00049.png|''Isn't this exciting?'' AintItFun-Cinder.png|''Aren't you feeling it, Vernal?'' CRVElevator6.png|''Not really, no'' CRVElevator7.png|''I don't care about any of this. All I care about is my tribe, my-'' CRVElevator8.png|''Oh, look, we're here'' I find it weirdly interesting how Raven and Vernal can say the exact same thing (I don't care about this, I just care bout DA TRIBE), and yet when Raven says it, she feels like an asshole, but when Vernal says it....she doesn't, quite the contrary. Granted, it's probably due to what they've done. Vernal didn't ditch her daughter for 17+ years or make a plan that involves the death of her brother and likely said daughter without giving a damn. She's just there, following orders. V5C12 00050.png CRVVault2.png V5C12 00051.png CRVVault4.png CRVVault5.png|''...The Beacon Vault was just a giant hall'' V5C12 00052.png|''This one is a giant tree instead. Why the extra effort with this one?'' CRVVault7.png|''Maybe Leo is compensating even more'' V5C12 00053.png|''Now, can we stop wasting time and move on?'' CRVVault9.png|''After you'' CRVVault10.png CRVVault11.png V5C12 00054.png|''(Let's get this over with)'' "After you", said Cinder to the raven-haired lady beside her, before the two Maidens walked away into the Vault, leaving Raven behind. ........I'm no CinemaSins, but I'm perfectly sure there would be a DING right here. She says "after you", then they walk in before her. That aside....this is the Relic's Vault, not a Maiden Vault. Why does Cinder speak as if she saw the Relic's Vault at Beacon? What Cinder saw was a Vault, where Amber was located, kept on life-support. She never even tried to obtain the Relic, or better said she ended up Silver Blasted before she even could start. This Vault, meanwhile, wasn't made to hide an injured Maiden, it was made to harbor the Relic of Knowledge. So, why is Cinder comparing it to the Vault she saw at Beacon? Red means truth, factShe's comparing apples and oranges: A Vault to keep a Maiden and a Vault to keep a Relic. And if the Vault at Beacon led to the Relic, why didn't Cinder stay and look for the Relic after killing Ozpin? It's not really a huge plothole that ruins the story, but it feels like the writters forgot what they wrote in Volume 3. Assuming, of course, that the Relics existed back in Vol.3. If they didn't it explains why Cinder didn't look for the Relic of Choice if she was in the Vault and Ozpin was dead. Meanwhile, trying hard to not get killed.... OzpinvsHazel1.png|''DIE, BASTARD!'' V5C12 00055.png OzpinvsHazel2.png OzpinvsHazel3.png OzpinvsHazel5.png OzpinvsHazel6.png OzpinvsHazel7.png V5C12 00056.png OzpinvsHazel9.png V5C12 00057.png V5C12 00058.png|''Don't worry Hazel, I'll-'' QrowvsLeo2.png QrowvsLeo3.png|''Oh, come on!'' QrowvsLeo4.png|''Don't look at me like that'' V5C12 00059.png|''I've been standing here for hours'' QrowvsLeo6.png|''And now, it's time to unleash my ultimate weapon...'' QrowvsLeo7.png|''FISTS!'' QrowvsLeo8.png|''AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!'' QrowvsLeo9.png V5C12 00060.png V5C12 00061.png OzH2ndRound1.png|''Alright, Mr. Raynart. Ready for Round 2?'' OzH2ndRound2.png|''YES'' OzH2ndRound3.png|Round Two OzH2ndRound4.png|'FIGHT!!' OzH2ndRound5.png OzH2ndRound6.png OzH2ndRound7.png OzH2ndRound8.png OzH2ndRound9.png OzH2ndRound10.png OzH2ndRound11.png OzH2ndRound12.png OzH2ndRound13.png OzH2ndRound14.png OzH2ndRound15.png OzH2ndRound16.png OzH2ndRound17.png OzH2ndRound18.png OzH2ndRound19.png OzH2ndRound20.png OzH2ndRound21.png OzH2ndRound22.png V5C12 00063.png OzH2ndRound24.png At the rate this is going, Ozcar's fight will be my favorite fight of the episode again. It has it's moments where it can be rather boring, but compared to everything before in this ep and last ep? These fights are great. OzH2ndRound25.png V5C12 00064.png OzH2ndRound27.png OzH2ndRound28.png|''ORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!'' OzH2ndRound29.png OzH2ndRound30.png OzH2ndRoundFinish1.png OzH2ndRoundFinish2.png OzH2ndRoundFinish3.png|''And now...'' OzH2ndRoundFinish4.png|''YOU LOSE!'' V5C12 00065.png OzH2ndRoundFinish6.png|''Git gud, noob'' ....Yeah, definitely my favorite fight this episode. It's better than Oscar's fight last ep in terms of flash and speed, though worse in terms of camera angles if only due to a bigger amount of distant shots. And even then, it's still cool. Not enough to redeem the episode overall, but it's still pretty good. OzH2ndRoundFinish7.png|''Want more, Mr. Raynart?'' OzH2ndRoundFinish8.png|''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'' OzH2ndRoundFinish9.png|''-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!'' OzH2ndRoundFinish10.png|''DAAAAAAAMMMMNNN IIIIIIITTT!!!!!!'' Now back to the kids V5C12 00066.png|''GASP GASP GASP GASP'' V5C12 00067.png|''That's it Jaune, keep touching, keep touching!'' JauneTheHealer13.png|''Weiss!'' V5C12 00068.png JauneTheHealer15.png JauneTheHealer16.png|''WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!'' V5C12 00070.png|''She took a glass Javelin to the liver and almost died, but Jaune is healing her by touching her body'' JauneTheHealer18.png|''Oh, thank goodness, I feared she-'' JauneTheHealer19.png|''Wait, what'' JauneTheHealer20.png|''She's stabilizing, so don't worry. She'll be fine'' YangBeatdown1.png|''AAAAHHH!!'' V5C12 00071.png V5C12 00072.png YangBeatdown4.png|''DON'T YOU MESS WITH THE HAIR!'' YangBeatdown5.png|''What's up, Blondie?'' YangBeatdown6.png|''AAAAAAAAAA-'' V5C12 00073.png|''-AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!'' V5C12 00074.png|''(GODDAMMIT with these stupid ilusions...)'' V5C12 00075.png|''.....Are you kidding me?!'' YangBeatdown10.png|''Now you're just trying to-'' YangBeatdown11.png|''What's up, Blondie?'' V5C12 00076.png YangBeatdown13.png Ah, it's so great to see Merc kick ass again. Not even half as badass as their Vol.3 fight, but it's something. Also.......I have to ask, how come anytime I want something in the show, 8/10 times, it's the Villains who deliver? >Dust Infusion? Hazel does it. >Attacking instead of standing around while the oponent takes like 10 seconds to do the fancy stuff? Vernal does it. >Attacking someone different from the one they're currently fighting? Cinder does it. >''TEAMWORK'' ? Merc and Emerald do it. Meanwhile, what do we have with the Heroes? >Only 1 real use of Dust sans hopping around with Glyphs for the entire fight. Because apparently Weiss forgot how to make the homing Fireballs or the Wind Blast. >They never switch targets for even a moment. >No one interrupted Cinder (or even tried) before she Javelined Weiss. Not even Jaune, who clearly had enough energy to get up and run, and there was no one stopping him, and was the first to rush at Cinder suicidally. >No combination attacks whatsoever. Not even with Renora, who went 2v1. And now, they see Yang getting beaten up by Merc, while Emerald is tricking her with Ilusions......and no one does anything but sit down and watch, popcorn at hand. It shouldn't take Yang getting like 3+ kicks to the face for, say, Ruby, to fire a shot at Emerald to stop her, at the very least. Or for Nora to launch a grenade. Jaune is the only one who has any excuse to not help Yang, while Ruby is the one that should have the most reasons to go help Yang instead of watching her get kicked around. But no, she just watches. Ugh, if only they were more like Vernal. I'm no fan of her, but even when she doesn't put much effort into the fight, she avoids fighting like an idiot. YangBeatdown14.png YangBeatdown15.png YangBeatdown16.png YangBeatdown17.png YangBeatdown18.png YangBeatdown19.png|''Argh!'' YangBeatdown20.png V5C12 00077.png|''Thanks for the help, guys....'' OzH3rdRound1.png|''No, Yang!'' OzH3rdRound2.png|''Oscar!'' OzH3rdRound3.png OzH3rdRound4.png OzH3rdRound5.png|''STOP JUMPING AROUND!!!!'' OzH3rdRound6.png OzH3rdRound7.png OzH3rdRound8.png OzH3rdRound9.png OzH3rdRound10.png OzH3rdRound11.png|''This is certainly not as fun as I expected...'' OzH3rdRound12.png|''Wait, wha-'' V5C12 00078.png|''Aaah!'' OzH3rdRound14.png|''QROW! Do your blasted job!'' OzH3rdRound15.png|''On it, Oz!'' V5C12 00079.png LaunchedQrow2.png LaunchedQrow3.png|''(...Fuck my life...)'' V5C12 00080.png|''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'' V5C12 00081.png|''-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-'' LaunchedQrow6.png|''-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!'' LaunchedQrow7.png|''(Okay....we’re screwed)'' Did Qrow get blasted into another dimension? Because I hear absolutely no crash sound at all. Even though, given the angle, and the speed at which he was sent flying, he should've crashed against the wall if not the ceiling in 2 seconds max. Unless he turned into a bird, and granted RT is too lazy to use a flash or anything, they just go off-screen for a sec and then poof, they're birds, and right now he's off-screen. But still. It definitely wouldn't hurt them to add a crash sound effect somewhere. V5C12 00082.png|''Touching Weiss so much while she's unconscious like that is honestly very creepy...'' JauneTheHealer22.png|''But it's working, so keep touching with all you have'' JauneTheHealer23.png|''....Does it really look that creepy?'' JauneTheHealer24.png|''Here, let me try it from range. Does it look better?'' LetsDoIt-RNJR1.png|''Much better. Though Oscar needs help...'' LetsDoIt-RNJR2.png|''I'll do it. I need to do something sooner or later'' LetsDoIt-RNJR3.png|''No, Jaune and Weiss still need cover'' V5C12 00077.png|''Uh, guys? Remember me? Hello?'' V5C12 00083.png|''Don't worry. I'll break his legs'' LetsDoIt-RNJR5.png|''Oh, right, you were still here'' LetsDoIt-RNJR6.png|''Alright then. Let's do it, RNJR!'' LetsDoIt-RNJR7.png LetsDoIt-RNJR9.png LetsDoIt-RNJR10.png|''AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!'' V5C12 00084.png|''HA!'' V5C12 00085.png|''Dammit! She woke up'' V5C12 00086.png|''Ruby!'' LetsDoIt-RNJR14.png|''About time you came to help me out'' LetsDoIt-RNJR15.png|''You ok, sis? You got bonked pretty hard on the head'' V5C12 00087.png|''Said the pot to the kettle'' LetsDoIt-RNJR17.png|''But nah, I'm not Ok right now...'' LetsDoIt-RNJR18.png|''...I'M ANGREY'' Ooooh....finally, she gets downright angry. Not "sad-angry" like with Penny. Outright angry. ....Though personally it's quite the tremendously-tranquil fury. If she didn't outright said she was angry, I would've never realized she was truly angry and not just serious. In any case, at least they're finally going to fight AS A TEAM (or as a pair, at least). Took their sweet time. 3) Did you actually believe...? V5C12 00088.png|''It's pretty quiet here. Think there's a trap somewhere?'' V5C12 00089.png|''OH SHIT!'' V5C12 00090.png V5C12 00092.png V5C12 00091.png V5C12 00093.png V5C12 00094.png|''Nevermind, false alarm'' CRVVault2-7.png|''Vernal, if you trigger something and kill us all, I'll kill you'' CRVVault2-8.png|''Please, Raven. A little fun never hurt anyone'' CRVVault2-9.png|''Think of this as an adventure'' V5C12 00098.png|''Great, now we're adventurers'' V5C12 00095.png|''So, how does this work?'' CRVVault2-11.png|''The Spring Maiden places her hand on the door, and it will open'' CRVVault2-12.png|''It will open for you, you, and only you'' V5C12 00096.png|''Then I will swoop into the Vault and take the Relic'' CRVVault2-14.png|''And by that, I mean me, me, and only me. Ok? Undertood? Capisci? Good'' CRVVault2-15.png|''Yeah, yeah, whatever, let's just get this over with'' CRVVault2-16.png|''Alright. Anytime you're ready, Vern'' CRVVault2-17.png So.....only the Maiden can open the door but anyone can go in afterwards? Or only the Maiden can open the door and only the Maiden can go in afterwards? The way Cinder said that it would open "only to you" made me think the former, yet her plan of going in afterwards tells me the latter. For the moment I assume the former, since otherwise Salem's plan would be incredibly stupid and risky. V5C12 00097.png CRVVault2-19.png|''You know, Raven, I've heard a lot about you'' CRVVault2-20.png|''They say you're as cunning as a fox'' CRVVault2-21.png|''As strong as a bear and as clever as a crow. No pun intended'' CRVVault2-22.png CRVVault2-23.png|''Too bad they're all wrong'' V5C12 00099.png|''Whoosh'' V5C12 00100.png|''Ah, shit!'' V5C12 00101.png|''Vernal, I need a hand here!'' V5C12 00102.png|''Raven!'' V5C12 00103.png|''Don't worry, I'll-'' V5C12 00104.png|''AAAAHH! What the hell?!'' CinderBackstab7.png|''(Dammit Vernal, you had one job!)'' CinderBackstab8.png|''...That was easier than I expected'' CinderBackstab9.png|''What's wrong, Vernie?'' V5C12 00105.png|''Have you never seen...'' V5C12 00106.png|''...A Grimm arm before?'' .............................................................................. ScaredWeiss.png|What have they done? CowardlyLion.png|''What have they done?!'' ScreamingFennec.png|''WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?!'' Are they insane?! THEY JUST MADE HALF-GRIMM PEOPLE CANON!!! Correction: THEY MADE ONE OF THE WORST, MOST GARY-STUISH, EDGIEST AND NONSENSICAL IDEAS IN THE ENTIRE RWBY FANON C.A.N.O.N. This is horrendous. This will lead to nothing good, nothing good at all. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?! ---- Horrors aside, there's the problem with this scene. Aside from how can Cinder even have a Grimm arm. As you can see, Vernal is bleeding. Problem is, she had Aura left, she barely took a hit in her fight with Weiss and every hit she got was weak. She should have like 98% Aura remaining, and that's being pessimistic. She also never did any fancy Aura Techniques like Blade Beams so she didn't lose any Aura with them. She's also an experienced fighter who literally fights and kills for a living, so unlike, say, Sienna, Vernal should have more than enough training and skill for Aura-Activation to become "second nature" for her. And Raven screamed, alerting Vernal, and combined with the previous fact that means Vernal should've activated her Aura right then and there. ...........And yet, she's bleeding. This means at least one of the following things must be true: 1) The Grimm arm pierces Aura. Making it the most OP thing ever in a world where Aura is the only defense most fighters have. It's the Flamethrower in a world of paper. 2) Cinder dealt so much damage that she took down Vernal's Aura in one shot. Making the arm still horrendously OP because Vernal's Aura was practically full. For comparison, Adam needed to charge for a few seconds to cut out Yang's arm, and that was after Yang had spent a whole night fighting and thus her Aura was not full, probably not even half-full. 3) The writers, once again, decided to give the concept of Aura - which they themselves thought up and designed - just so X character could be injured, probably die, without even trying to come up with a decent explanation for why X character didn't use their Aura. It is extremely stupid, it's like if they wanted us to believe that Bob could survive being blasted towards the ceiling at 400Km/H with Aura without much problem, yet gets killed with a simple backstab even when he had Aura that should've protected him. They made these rules, no? That if you want to injure someone you need to take down their Aura first, Aura that in terms of activation, like Ren said, eventually becomes second nature, a reflex. If you add rules to your work, '''follow your damn rules, otherwise they cease to matter. If people are going to die left and right because Aura ''doesn't do '''SHIT, what's the point of Aura then? Might as well never have made it a thing. And here I thought this episode was getting good. But no, it did a 180º, and it's heading outright into one of the worst episodes, of what is shaping up to be one of the worst Volumes in this show's entire history, if it isn't already the worst. Yes, even worse than Volume 1, in everything but graphics. At the most cynical, Vol.1 at least had great music and fights. Volume 5 doesn't even have that. V5C12 00107.png|''Don't take it personally, babe CinderBackstab13.png|''You're just too ugly to be worthy of such grand power'' CinderBackstab14.png|''But I am'' V5C12 00108.png|''Now then...'' CinderBackstab16.png|''Die like a dog, and give me the Spring Maiden Powers!'' V5C12 00109.png CinderBackstab18.png|''Soon, I shall have what belongs to me!'' CinderBackstab19.png|''Everyone shall fear the name Cinder Fall for all eternity!'' V5C12 00110.png CinderBackstab21.png CinderBackstab22.png|''.......................'' CinderBackstab23.png|''.......................'' V5C12 00111.png|''....Wait, what's going on?'' CinderBackstab24.png|''WHERE ARE THE POWERS?!'' CinderBackstab25.png|''HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!'' V5C12 00112.png|''You thought Vernal was the Spring Maiden'' CinderBackstab27.png|''But it was me!'' V5C12 00113.png|''RAVEN!'' WeissDrinkingCoffee.png 0Fucks-Weiss.png|............... WeissDrinkingCoffee.png ShockedWeiss.png|''WHAT?!'' I'm going to admit, compared to the previous twist....this one's not so bad. Pretty good, actually. Conclusions This, really is one of the worst episodes of this season, in quite a lot of ways. On a technical level it feels rushed, and many technical problems become worse due to the questionable writing that accompanies them. The Shot Continuity Errors that have been prevalent for years and were everywhere back in Volume 4, aren't just also present here, they are present in some of the most unforgivable, unbelievable and inexcusable ways possible. For example, Qrow saves Oscar and pulls out his Scythe, facing Hazel, all 3 standing at the center of the room. Then we inmediately switch to Yang's PoV, who looks from left-to right as Cinder and co. enter the elevator. And when she looks at the center of the room, neither Qrow, Hazel nor Oscar are visible. Which is inexcusable because it's just matter of grabbing their models, and putting them there (or better said, leaving them there). It's literally one of the most basic and trivial parts of animation, analogous to copy-pasting a picture. And then we cut to Oscar trying his damnest to not get Lightning-Pounded into the ground by Hazel, Qrow nowhere to be seen. Until Oscar is sent flying away, where, if you have a good eye or pause the video at the right time, he's suddenly crouching near the right side of the room, weapon in Sword-mode. Not only is it a very lazy and cheap way to "explain" where the hell he was, it makes the Scythe feels like it was just teasing us, because despite Qrow pulling it out, he never uses it at all and after the tease, he spends the rest of the ep with the weapon in Sword-mode. Actually, when was the last time we saw Qrow actually fight someone using the Scythe? I can't recall at all at this point. Another technical problem, at least in my eyes, is the facial animation here. Not that it's bad, but rather, when you hear the VAs, you can feel the passion and emotion they all put into their lines. But the characters's faces don't reflect that level of emotion, which just makes it more obvious than normal how in RT no one talks to anyone during production. With Hazel this isn't the case at all, and neither it is with Jaune IMO though in his case it makes sense. But there were a few times with Oscar and Ruby where it was, sometimes not too bad, sometimes pretty bad. Then there's the moments where it's either bad writing or people being freaking stupid. For example, Ruby sees Yang getting her ass kicked around, and does nothing but watch for more than a minute before she even thinks about helping her out. The same girl who took some initiative and tried to jump-attack Cinder after Jaune attacked her, in the previous episode. You'd think she would've done the same sooner if she saw her sister being beaten up. And in a more general sense, there's Nora. Who stays off-screen for nearly the entire episode and until like the last 4 minutes, never even tried to help anyone. Never tried to throw a grenade at Emerald, or help Oscar out with the guy '''WITH LIGHTNING HANDS, and she only even thinks of doing the latter after many minutes. What the hell, seriously. ---- Now, it's pretty obvious that this episode is shit, and only avoids being the worst episode of this Volume by virtue of the fact that stuff actually happens. (The honor of Worst Episode still goes to Ep6) '''BUT, '''whether it's better or worse than the previous episode is a better question. Narratively, well...it had more narrative, for starters. It actually has twists and interesting parts, like Hazel using Dust Infusion to get an abominable voice and lightning arms. Or Raven being the Maiden all along. But in last ep, the biggest problem was either momentary stupidity or the fact that the Teamfight did not feel like a Teamfight at all, with massive lack of teamwork and all. But this time it's not momentary stupidity or lack of teamwork. The characters outright just watch their teammates get beaten up for hours before even thinking to do anything. Nora outright vanishes and does nothing for almost the entire episode when she should've been the first one to try to help Oscar once Hazel pulled out the Lightning Dust. And Ruby watches Yang get her ass handed to her instead of jumping at her to help her out. So, overall, I'd say this episode is more ''INTERESTING'', but at the same time, ''It's WORSE'' than the previous episode. Worse written, for the greater most part. ---- That said, I need to give an applause to RT for the Raven twist.' It caught me and likely you off-guard, and it's not bullshit, it was something that made sense. And in fact it can change perception of Raven herself, at the very least makes her look less stupid than before. Since the Opening, we all thought Vernal was the Spring Maiden, they made it as obvious as they could, and we are so used to them making things painfully obvious, that we thought they did it again. But now, it turns out she wasn't, it was Raven. And it's something that when you look back, it doesn't come out of nowhere, it was a reasonable possibility. '''1> The Spring Maiden ran away long ago.' Qrow thought she ended up finding Raven's camp. We assumed Raven added her to the clan, even though it's retarded for someone who doesn't want to be part of Oz-and-Sal's fight to do that. But what if Raven killed her instead? She gets the powers and uses them as subtly as she want. There's the question of her age, but given she was at least 21 when she graduated from Beacon, and we don't know how long she stayed before returning to DA TRIBE, that means she could've found and killed Spring when she was about as old as Cinder is now. On the matter of age, we also know now that the Maiden powers can stay even if one is like 40 years old. The question is if they just stay or if they stay if someone stays young in mind (I legit can see Raven being all "I'm forever 17!"). 2> On the topic of subtlety, her mask. We all assumed that Vernal didn't show the Maiden Mask because she had far more control of her powers than Cinder did, and because she wasn't so obsessed with showing off. Since we don't know jack-shit about the Maiden Powers beyond "Elements", it sounded plausible. But now, we know Vernal was never the Maiden, Raven was. And while it might've been the lighting in the area, her Maiden Mask looks far more Red and far less Orange than Cinder's. In fact, her Maiden Mask isn't even yellow, it's White-and-Red. Now consider how the eyes in her mask seem to light up Red everytime she puts it on. And the fact that she had her mask on when Vernal showed off her powers. Overall, Miles played us like a damn fiddle here. It was an expert abuse of expectations to deceive and trick the audience. Granted, said expectations were based on disappointment, but still. It was a good twist. Now, read this. The hottest color possible for organic materials in general, is White. The flame is white at the shortest, closest distance from the body. If not White, then it's Yellow, but still it's the hottest region of the flames. Above it, lies Orange which is cooler, and Red which is even cooler. And above red combustion no longer occurs. Basically, the difference between Red fire and White fire, is about 1000 degrees, with temperature dropping the further away you get from the "heart" of the flame. Now consider how Cinder's is mostly Orange, while Raven's is mostly White. Assuming this means anything, Raven is a more powerful Maiden than Cinder. And that's leaving out all the skill/training/experience difference between them. Overall, this twist is pretty much the best part of the episode in terms of narrative and writing. Or the only good part. ---- THAT SAID, I do like more the idea that Vernal really was the Spring Maiden, and that the Maiden Powers don't stack (Fall Maiden can't get Spring's powers and vice versa). Because then that means that Cinder just killed the Spring Maiden for nothing, before getting the Relic, and thus her decision to be an asshole for POWAAH UNLIMITED POWAAH, ruined their entire plan. It just sounds so poetic to me. ---- Now, the other twist...Jaune's healing. Let's assume that's his Semblance and not just Magic he pulled out of his ass. Now, on one hand, I do admit and agree, that it's extremely convenient, was never implied or foreshadowed in the slightest, and in fact it goes against what was foreshadowed in Volume 1 - a Shield or Counter ability - which MONTY HIMSELF said was a glimpse of his Semblance. .........However, in terms of "bullshit introduced out of nowhere that it's perfectly convenient", this is probably the most tolerable and acceptable case in the entire show. For these reasons: 1> Personality: Semblances reflect aspects of one-self, or better said can. Back in Volume 1-3, he wanted to be the Hero, the Knight in Shining Armor who swoops down upon Ebil and saves the day. And a Shield Semblance reflects that idea well-enough. But, after Pyrrha died, Jaune became far less focused on being a Hero, and overall cares more about no one dying on him again. His character changed, at least in this regard. And it would make sense that if one's character changes, their Semblance could change too, especially when it hasn't been discovered yet and is thus in the "anything can happen" stage. 2> Theme: Jaune, with his appearance (especially his Vol.4+ one), his use of a Sword and Shield, and not having an aggressive fighting style (at least after he learned how to fight), isn't really much of a Warrior, but rather more of a Paladin. The Archetypical, Stereotypical White Knight of Fantasy Fiction. Paladins historically have been portrayed with Light powers, of which a very common one is Healing magic, even if not on par with an actual Healer's. So Jaune having a Healing Semblance, fits him thematically. Also, there's a more hypothetical but still possible idea. See, originally that "glimpse" of his Semblance didn't just involve Cardin's hand hurting, but also Jaune apparently healing. Supposedly, that was an animation mistake that they never fixed. But, what if they took advantage of this, and changed the idea for Jaune's Semblance into something that did involve Healing? Which would be in line with what we saw in the show, in spite of the commentaries, and it'd be preferred since not everyone watches (or cares about) the commentaries. And more optimistically....it covers Weiss entirely. Like a veil of sorts. She hasn't been attacked, and the idea is that she isn't, but leaving aside the Healing, it looks quite like a barrier, like a Shield. So perhaps it IS still a Shield-like Semblance, only that it doesn't just protect, but instead it also Heals whoever is being shielded. Hence why I'm not exploding in a rage or anything about Jaune healing Weiss by touching her up for the entire episode. It's not that bad this time. ---- Then comes Hazel doping with Dust. It makes his manliness feel rather fake, if you ask me, but the idea in itself, is very damn cool even if it's different from what I was expecting. I already talked about it before so I'll focus more on what we see: 1> It involves literally stabbing yourself with Raw, Uncut Dust. Whether it can be done in other ways needs to be seen. 2> It alters your voice, and at least with Hazel it caused his scars (Which I originally thought were Dust Tattoos....guess I wasn't too far off?) to ocasionally glow yellow/golden like the Lightning Dust, on top of all the sparks running across them. 3> Elemental energy is released with every attack, but not just as small shockwaves when you hit something. Hazel twice or thrice, shot some small Lightning a small distance forward, just by punching. 4> While stabbing yourself with Lightning Dust looked painful, it doesn't seem like it has any noticeably-bad side effects. Unless I somehow missed Hazel having an epileptic attack at some point. So it's painful, but that's it. Now, the parts regarding the Voice and the glow and stuff are likely not as obvious-looking or as severe, if one doesn't inject 8'' Dust Crystals. But everything else still stands. ---- And, that's pretty much it with this episode. Oscar vs Hazel and Ozpin vs Hazel looked good, the latter outright cool, and this episode had some interesting things shown or revealed (and one that should have never been done). But in an overall sense it feels rushed technically, and sloppily written. It's not really a good episode. It's interesting, but not a good episode at all. FUNNY V5E12 PICS :D !!! OOOOOZZZZZPPPPPIIIINNNNNN.png|''OOOOOOOZZZZZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN AintItFun-Cinder.png|''ARE YOU FEELING IT NOW, RAVEN?!'' HappyCinder.png|''Cause I am!'' FlyingLion.png|This QrowLongNeck.png|Dat neck Now, Hazel screams a lot so there's far more places to take pics from. Feel free to take another one. Vernal also has many moments where she makes "Are you kidding me" faces, but I already took one the previous episode so I didn't need any. Cinder though. She really was enjoying the trip to the Vault. Category:Blog posts